Suicide is definitely NOT better. Have you ever thought that maybe you're survival is inspirational to others? It is! and hopefully your life will serve as a voice. Don't give up! Quitting is easy. Sticking through with it, and fighting the odds is hard, but the pay off is great! Imagine how much of a joy it will be to see your kids grow up someday. Life is worth hanging on to. Don't give up!

this song is so good, it makes me cry. most of frank's music is that way for me. it's painfully beautiful. i should also note that as i'm writing this comment, "lost" just came on my pandora playlist...pretty cool

My life now is a LOT better. I live in a relatively safe neighborhood in LA and work in entertainment. I work hard, try to help my parents as much as I can still, and really value the little things. It's nice living in a neighborhood where I can walk out, and not be afraid. I love living around other young professionals, and meeting people from all walks of life.

The Bronx wasn't all bad though - there are great lessons that I've learned there. I'm a tough girl, can hold my own anywhere, and am a VERY great judge of character.

Some things I miss from the BX: I miss the sense of "community" that my parents made with others that were in our situation. It was a real tight knit group and we "watch each other's back" seems like in LA every man (or woman) is out here for themselves.

I miss my friends I grew up with and think of them often.

A lot of times, I feel tremendous guilt for "making it out" it's hard to explain. Especially when I go home to visit my parents and see that they still live there. Crazy thing is, because that's all they've ever known, they don't even realize "how bad" it is. That's all they know.

Yes I actually have, several times. My family and I were at a McDonalds on Webster Avenue in the Bronx (must have been around 1987) and three guys that were eating at a table next to us pulled out guns and robbed the place. I was 7 years old, and it all just happened so quickly, but I'll never forget the look on my mothers face, just giving me the "don't move" look. Looking back, I can't imagine how I'd feel in her situation being helpless that this took place.

One of my sisters was almost raped one night when she was coming back home from her part time job at a supermarket. She was in the elevator with a guy (we lived on the 4th floor at the time) and as she got out, he pulled her back into the elevator, and was pressing 21. Our building had 21 floors, so he was basically trying to take her up to the roof.

My sister was about 18 at the time, but managed to let go and ran into the hallway. My dad heard her screams and ran outside in his boxers with a HUGE kitchen knife. He managed to chase this guy for about two blocks, but the guy got away. We're lucky this story had a somewhat happy ending.

My mom was robbed in the same building a few years later at gunpoint. We actually saw the guy that robbed her outside of our window one night and called the police (they actually came this time!) they managed to catch the guy and arrest him. His family made my life a LIVING HELL. They wrote graffiti all over our door with words like "you're gonna die" "watch your back" and other things... We were able to get an emergency "housing transfer" and moved to yet another housing project on the other side of the Bronx, where my parents still live until this day.

No one has ever broken into our home, but my dad's car (he was a gypsy taxi driver) was broken into sooo many times.

This question makes me cry, because in my heart, I always feel a certain level of guilt with "making it" I always think about the children living in places like that, and pray that they someday will have the tools to make it in life. I wish they knew they have what it takes to "be somebody". I never really knew any professional people growing up, other than my teachers, and doctors whenever I went to the hospital for a check up, so it was really hard for me to grasp the possibility of being educated. I know it sounds crazy, but thank God for television!

I think if I could give one piece of advice, as cheesy as it would be, is to stay in school. Physical possessions may come and go, but arming yourself with knowledge and a strong education gives you power in society that no one can ever take away from you.

If I could give advice to the parents raising these children, I'd tell them to LOVE their children. My friends never joined gangs to hurt people. They joined gangs because they didn't have any love in their life. Many of my friends grew up without a father figure (some of them with NO parents and were raised by their grandparents) so they craved love. They wanted to belong. They wanted to feel like they were a part of something. Anything.

I was one of the lucky ones to escape poverty, but so many of my friends have been murdered, or are still struggling to get by and living in the same place. A few of them are in jail.

I guess I got out by having this survivor mentality. I always had faith that I would move out of the projects, and see what was "out there". I did really well in high school and got accepted into college. I went to college and worked the entire time (both while in school and during the summers). College really opened my eyes, and made me realize that educating myself was the only way I could ever break the cycle. I'm no where near wealthy, but going to school, getting a BA gave me the tools I needed to get a decent paying job.

After college, I moved back to the Bronx, got an apartment with a roommate (outside of the projects) and worked in Manhattan. I saved up for two years, and ended up moving to (a TINY apt) in LA, where I now work in the entertainment industry. Sadly, I don't make enough to get my parents "out" of the projects, as my mom is in her late 60s and my dad is in his 70's (my parents had me very late in life). My dad was a taxi driver, so he sadly has no retirement, no 401K, no savings.

I still help them financially in any way I can, but their only income is social security. I work my ass off on a daily basis, and pray that I will someday be able to move them into a nicer place.

This is a tough question. I have interacted with "good cops" and "bad ones". I think the NYPD (my precinct was the 44th) were really short staffed, at least that's the way it seemed. I remember on numerous occasions calling the cops for incidences, and they'd show up hours later, if they ever showed up at all. The housing project I grew up in was 21 stories high and I hardly EVER saw any police presence there for precautionary reasons. The cops always showed up after anything ever happened. When they did, I often felt like they were dismissive and addressed people with a condescending, aggravated tone. They often arrested people I grew up with for just being in the lobby of the project if they didn't even live there for "trespassing". I can't say that they're all this way, but this is just my personal experience. I think over time, the NYPD has really improved, and I've noticed a significant difference in the way they treat people.

Hi, I guess living was more like surviving. I didn't know it at the time, because that is literally the only way of life that I knew. My parents didn't have much money at all, so we barely got by, and which is the reason why we had to live in the "projects" aka subsidized housing. My dad was an alcoholic, so my mom never really felt safe going out alone after dark. I rarely (if ever) got to play outside, because our neighborhood parks were drug spots. Drug deals were done out in the open, crackheads used to knock on my door to sell us things (once got a great tv, and then his girlfriend came banging on our door at 3am to get it back) and the hallways were literally covered in urine. It was disgusting. We tried to make the inside of our apartment, as much of a home as we could. Watching TV was my escape. I watched hours and hours of television, particularly Full House and Family Matters. I dreamed of living in a house, and swore to myself that I'd get out of there as fast as I could. Sorry for the vague answer, but not sure if this covers what you're asking?

I've never done any hard drugs in my life. I've always been afraid of them for some reason, especially seeing the effects they've had on so many people I've known. I've smoked a few joints here and there in college. Personally, I've never actually seen anyone die, but I have heard gunshots (almost every single night growing up) right outside my window, which at times resulted in someone's death. I'd learn about it the next day, when one of my neighbors would ask my parents if we heard about what happened, or there was some sort of memorial put up for the person who was killed (candles, pictures, crosses, that sorta thing)